October 31 - Creepy!

It's Halloween and we started it with a bit of spirit!  The boys got to school with skeleton shirts and creepy socks, I was able to pull together a witch costume, and Anna has a great orange striped scarf with a bad eye to match.  A miracle indeed, because I feel like we are so last minute with costumes and Halloween in general.  And now we are taking a much needed break between the school day and the evenings trick or treating.  Wild Kratts and some cheese and crackers for the boys...me, posting a bit on the blog and shedding the busyness of the day.   Here we go Halloween eve!

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Kuba = Alien Cow  Anders = Zombie 

They made their own costumes at Burlington City Arts 

 

The Note Taker at our Family Meetings

Kuba was the note taker at our family meeting yesterday.   October 19th at 7:35 pm.
We usually have meetings on Sunday evenings right around 7o'clock.  Last night was no  exception. We begin each meeting with appreciations...each of us says one thing out loud that we appreciate about everyone else, so essentially we all say 3 individual appreciations. We keep track of who goes first, and who they appreciate and what they say.  It's our record keeping method.   Yesterday it was Kuba's turn to take notes.  It was hard for him to capture the whole appreciation in words as a new writer, so he drew pictures instead.  These are his notes.  If you take a look at the top left, Anders was first in his appreciations.  He appreciated Anna for practicing violin with him, Kuba for playing with him, and me for practicing piano with him even though I was so tired.  His drawings show Anders holding a violin, Anders and Kuba smiling, and Anders and me...with me tipping over from exhaustion.   Awesome, right!   I know we are not going to remember the meaning of these drawings later, but we are going to remember that family meeting is really fun, and our kids are getting so terrific at sharing genuine and heartfelt appreciations.  We also solved a problem last night.  How to keep our house cleaner during the week so we can play more on the weekends.  Let's see how we do!

Cominuladid

Kuba sometimes makes up words.  This time we asked him to write down what it meant. He did.  cominuLaDiD:  sad and happy at The sam Tim.  He drew a picture to add clarity. This was late May of 2014.  I forgot to post about it, but I didn't want it to slip through the record keeping crack of mothering and blogging.   I just came upon this photo again and am adding it now even though it was from 5 months ago.  It's just too good of a word to miss.  And, feel free to use it anytime you are both sad and happy at the same time.

Five Years Later

When Kuba was 2, he had a birthday party that included an owl and his trainer from Outreach for Earth Stewardship.  It was a favorite birthday party and memory.  Today, at an art exhibit, there was a group of photographs by artist Judy Natal, and there on the wall was a photograph of the same trainer and his barred owl.  I just had to take a photo of the three of them again, 5 years later.   

                                

Of Land and Local in the Rain

Today was a dreary, rainy day- yet Anna was determined to get out of the house and out into the natural world.  So, off we went on this cloudy and thoroughly wet afternoon, in our raincoats and rain boots, and holding onto a couple of umbrellas.  Anna, her mom and the boys set off  through the woods to see a fabulous outdoor art installation and I drove the car to meet them.  The sculpture was totally worth the drippy, soggy walk.    

  

Brilliant Idea

I signed the boys up for a "Do it Yourself" Halloween costume making class today and WOW was that ever a brilliant idea.   They had a blast, came home with costumes they were wicked proud of, and I got to spend the day with my mom on her birthday!   Zombie and zombie cow certainly do look spectacular!

FUN RUN 2014

The boys school held a fun run today....all 280  kids running around the building in laps to equal a mile.  There was a rock band, a percussive band, and an African drumming band to cheer on the runners, as well as a ton of families there to cheer on the kids.  The PE teacher, school nurse and a school social worker began a program a year ago called Move it!  Move it!  It happens 3 times a week and kids run to gather up miles.  They get little prizes along the way for their running accomplishments and to keep motivation high.  Both of my boys are running regularly and each are just about to hit a new milestone...Kuba, 25 miles, and he'll get a special t-shirt, and Anders 75 miles and he'll get to go for ice cream to the local ice cream shop with 2 teachers of his choice.  All of this supports being active in a very healthy way.   It's so exciting for sure and I love the enthusiasm that has built up at the school about running!

The Best Part of Me

The best part of me is my mouth becos it lets me eta hot dogs and breth and speck. 

 So the best port of me is my mouth.  

It is cindov red and medium and mushy and round.  

That is wiy I love my mouth.  

Scientific Illustrations

Kuba was learning about the life cycle of the butterfly in first grade this fall.  Their classroom had a butterfly home and about 15 monarch caterpillars munching away on milkweed.  Out of 15 caterpillars only 3 made it to the chrysalis stage and then metamorphosed into butterflies.

The kids created scientific illustrations of the stages of the caterpillar, looking carefully at images of monarch eggs, caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies and observed the live ones in their room.   They then made an accordion fold caterpillar book that is pretty cute.  Kuba was painstakingly careful with his illustrations and his coloring.  His engagement with this was just exquisite, as was his final book.
 

Out With a Bang!

Anders joined a soccer league this fall and played soccer for the first time as a member of a soccer team, team England.  The big plus for him was that his friend Ben was also on the team.  They had practice once a week and played 6 games in the season, losing week after week.  Despite the losses, Anders liked playing and felt proud that the team was loosing by less each week; 6-1, 3-1, 2-1, 1-0, etc.  Their final game on Sunday was thrilling to watch, because they WON!!!  Score:  England 2, France 1.  If there were awards to be given, Anders surely would have won the most improved player award.  His skill level grew steadily each week until he was looking like a true soccer player that last game.

Stone Arches

Anders fourth grade class went on a field trip to a local college and were lucky enough to meet and work with the local sculptor, Thea Alvin.  Thea is an artist that creates fabulous stone arches, and other stone sculptures that resemble the work of artist Andy Golsdworthy.  Here is Anders creating a small stone arch using the mold provided.  His class created three successful small arches while behind them towered a giant arch that Thea was creating for the college.